The True Confessions of a Nine-Tailed Fox

Chapter 45: An Alternative to Usury

In a flash, all of my annoyance at Taila's tardiness vanished. A proposal? What sort of proposal?

With Bobo beaming at his side, Stripey explained, "Unlike most people, we do have a stash of savings at the moment." (Translation: The duck demons had filled their coffers by robbing New Year's travelers, and unlike everyone else, they didn't have to spend it on rent, taxes, tolls, fees, or fines. Apart from the baron and the wealthiest townsfolk, they were the only people in the barony with spare cash right after Settling Day.) "We are willing to lend the Jeks the rent they owe in exchange for aid at a later date."

Owing aid to a band of bandits didn't sound like a healthy state. What sort of aid are we talking – I started to ask, but that was when Taila charged out of the cottage.

Half dressed.

Mistress Jek was really failing at the whole parenting thing this morning.

"Jek Taila!" she roared. "Get back here this instant! You're going to freeze to death!"

"It's a duck!" squealed Taila. "Hi, Mr. Duck!"

Stripey wisely waddled backwards before she could fling her arms around his neck. From a safe distance (i.e. greater than her arms' length), he replied, "Hello, Miss Jek."

She was so excited about the talking duck that she forgot all the etiquette I'd drilled into her. She squatted with her bare legs showing the same way she had the day she met me. Then she tipped her head ninety degrees to the side to examine his left side, and a hundred eighty degrees the other way to study his right side.

When she was older, maybe I should take her to the nearest city and apprentice her to a natural philosopher. She did seem well-suited for the study of animals. If she ever learned that they came in more than one gender, that was.

"Taila! Taila! Get back here right this – " The harried mother dashed out the door, flapping a padded jacket. She stopped short when she saw Stripey. "Taaaaaila? What did we say about treating guests with respeeect?"

"Oops! Sorry!" Still squatting, as if she couldn't bear to put so much as her height's worth of distance between herself and the duck, Taila rattled off, "Welcome-to-our-humble-abode-Mr.-Duck-'tis-a-pleasure-to-make-your-acquaintance!"

Stripey took another careful step back, nearly tripping over one of Bobo's coils. "It's a pleasure to meet you too, Miss Jek."

She leaned forward on her toes to follow him. "You're a spirit too, right? Like Bobo and Mr. Turtle? Nailus told me aaaallll about spirits...."

She could have expounded on the topic at length (maybe I should apprentice her to a mage – she certainly had the droning-lecture part mastered), but I intervened. Taila, you're late for class already. Write down the twos times tables, from two times one to two times twelve.

That should occupy her long enough for us to negotiate with Stripey.

"Aww, but I want to talk to Mr. Duck...," she whined.

"You can talk to him later," her mother said firmly. "Finish your math first."

"I wanna talk to him noooooow...." But Taila did retrieve her writing stick, which she stored under the honeysuckle bush so it wouldn't get burned for kindling, and started scrawling out multiplication problems.

"Won't you come in for some tea?" invited Mistress Jek.

"Ah, yes, thank you," replied Stripey, still in a slight daze. It was a common reaction for people meeting Taila for the first time. And the second. And the tenth. "Yes, I would appreciate a cup of tea."